It began 100 years ago, with a few Japanese pioneers who came to Vancouver Island to fish and work the forests. Later, they sent for “picture brides” to start their families in their new land. My father was born in Port Alberni, my mother in Mayo, near Lake Cowichan, in the 1930s. After resettling in Ontario after the war, my parents met and married in 1959 and raised their four children. In 1993, I moved to Victoria with my wife and son to resettle in B.C. This summer, I will fulfill my dream when the whole family converges on Vancouver Island for a week before taking an Alaskan cruise to celebrate my parents' 50th anniversary. My dad, and his dad before him, instilled a love of fishing in me. While the others go whale watching, beachcombing, and even snorkelling with the salmon, I will take my dad to the mouth of the Campbell River in Discovery Passage, between Seymour Narrows and Cape Mudge. We’ll be in a rowboat with 20-pound test line, single hooks, and artificial lures in a quest to land a 30-pound Chinook salmon and earn a coveted membership into the exclusive “Tyee Club.” (collapse)